Diving trip abroad - why not Greece?

Good food. Warm weather. Plenty of sights. Plenty of salty sea water. Cheaper than in western Europe. Uncrowded beaches. Safe. Several airlines operate on the route Berlin – Athens or Warsaw – Athens. Good ticket prices, around 700 PLN round trip. You can check Ryanair, Aegean, easyJet, Lufthansa, KLM, Austrian or LOT.

Now is the best time to buy tickets. They may soon start to become more expensive. I am not mentioning the charter trips of travel agencies, which have other (besides Athens) destinations of several Greek cities in their offers.

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The Muslim “Spring of Nations” and terrorist acts caused a drastic reduction in interest in Egyptian-Tunisian-Turkish destinations. Mediterranean destinations in Europe have been noticed and appreciated. Sure, many of our compatriots still consider the resorts in Egypt to be safe enough, but you can see from the numbers counted in thousands that Poles have switched to the aforementioned.

“The land of the Greeks”, as Greece was called by the Romans, is one of the most interesting trip proposals, both for divers and for non-divers. Both because of the prices, as well as because of the natural diversity associated with the terrain. There are mountains and valleys, large agglomerations and quiet villages, quiet bays and noisy public beaches.

I travel by diving and I encourage it. If you have your favourite place, how do you know that another can’t match it if you haven’t tried it? I have my favourites too, but exploring new ones releases a different adrenaline, you become an explorer.

Greece is divided into 13 regions, but above all it has a very long, rich and varied coastline. We must take into account the islands, of which there are more than 2,500 and which make up 1/5 of the country’s surface area. Although almost 80% of this area is covered by mountains (the highest peak is Olympos, 2917 m.a.s.l.), Greece is a maritime country. The coastline is 15,000 km including the coast of all the islands, which is 10.9 thousand km long. Isn’t that a lot?

When planning a trip to the Hellenic Republic, we may struggle with too many options. Then it is best to go on the cheap or choose what interests us most.

The diving is also brilliant. Many sites designed for technical divers. Wrecks and caves. Recreational divers, who are most numerous, as well as those who just want to start their diving adventure, will completely satisfy their tastes. The rocks and underwater mountain ranges hide many nooks and crannies and natural shelters for marine animals.

Fish species typical of the Mediterranean swim in the depths. But Greece is the country where you can also meet turtle, dolphin, wings, barracuda, seahorses, nudibranchs, stingrays or large groupers. Just read, ask around and choose where you want to spend your personal holiday. It is worth choosing such places where you will “work” physically. Otherwise the Greek cuisine with its fine wines and delicacies may round you up here and there.

And yes, two dives after a Greek breakfast, lunch, sightseeing, an evening swim in the sea and an evening feast. Alternatively, a morning sightseeing, lunch, an afternoon dive and a night dive just before dinner. The possibilities are many.

The number of tourists in Greece is increasing from year to year, and the Greeks themselves are open and friendly. At least I have come across such ones. In 2015 alone, more than 23 and a half million people visited the country. This is a 7.1 per cent increase on 2014.

Before you decide where to spend the May weekend this year, where to go on holiday, think also about Greece. I, for one, still want to visit it, going where I have not been before.

Photo: CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org